In This Class We Stan A Friend
by EatCrow
Summary: AU Where five years ago Marinette and Tim became friends when he spent the summer training in Paris under Lady Shiva. However, the life of a hero is a hectic one and as such the two lost touch with each other. Now with a class trip to Gotham, Alya is determined to reconnect the two together.-(Completed one-shot)


**Edited 12-9-2019**

This was beta-read by the lovely EthelPhantom. She made it all shiny!

Originally, this was written for the Maribat flash fluff event hosted on Tumblr. It took me a bit of time to post this here. This event is supposed to be a salt detox and considering how the class is often portrayed in Maribat fics I really wanted to make an AU where they're all on board to help Marinette get her man. Mostly because I am _weak_ for ride or die friendships and I miss when Alya was written as Mari's best friend.

* * *

Of course, Alya knows everything about Marinette's epic one time, '_Oh my God, Alya we were thirteen, it wasn't a crush'_ crush. It had been a summer romance for the ages, and Marinette had managed to keep in touch with the boy for nearly two years after he left. Alya had seen the emails and texts, she had seen the way Marinette lit up at every single one.

Which is why, despite Adrien claiming the spot of Marinette's first love, Tim had nestled himself onto the list sometime after their fifteenth summer, before Lycée had started, Mayura appeared, Hawkmoth stepped up his game, and Tim and Marinette fell out of touch with each other.

No matter what Marinette may have said, Alya had spent a week during their first year of Lycée consoling the girl after she had realized that one, Tim hadn't talked to her in nearly two months, two, he had changed his number, and three, she had no way of contacting him again.

So with their final year of Lycée starting in the fall, and their senior year trip abroad taking them to Gotham, the city that just so happens to be where Tim is from, there isn't a force in heaven nor hell that can prevent Alya from reuniting the two of them together.

* * *

Her first order of business, getting the girls onboard.

"Is there a reason Lila isn't here?" Rose asks, glancing around Juleka's room. "I get why Marinette isn't, but shouldn't we include Lila?"

Alya sucks in a deep breath — she has her reasons for leaving Lila out of this. "Listen, it's no secret that Lila and Marinette get along like a pack of angry dogs, and don't get me wrong, I like Lila. But this is about Marinette, and there is nothing that is going to stop my girl from getting her one chance at true love. Nothing!"

"I thought Adrien was Marinette's one chance at true love," Alix snorts.

"Yeah," Juleka mumbles. "Didn't you say that last week?"

She had said it and even meant it too, because on the surface they seemed perfect for each other. Adrien, the literal ray of sunshine, and Marinette, a cinnamon roll personified, just made sense. They fit, and for the life of her, Alya couldn't understand exactly what about them just wasn't working. That is, until she heard where exactly their class would be spending the summer, thus giving Alya another potential contender for Marinette's heart.

And once Alya got to thinking about the potential of someone else? Well. She had started to think about Marinette and Adrien more. The two are cute. They're kind and sweet and walk on gumdrops. Each individually would make someone so incredibly happy, it's just….

Well, it wouldn't be each other.

Together, they just didn't fit.

"I did, but that was before our destination was announced." Alya bites her lip, turning away slightly from the girls. "Not to mention, it's been years and operation Adrienette still hasn't taken off no matter what we've tried. Marinette is my best friend, she deserves better than someone that's going to see right past her."

"Okay, so we move on from Adrien. Do you really think the next best thing is to try to set her up with a guy who, I don't know, _hasn't seen her since she was thirteen_, lives in another country, and, oh yeah that's right, _hasn't spoken with her in three years_?"

"You know, I always thought that." Mylene shoots a look over towards the divider that's separating Luka and Juleka's room. "He and Marinette made a cute couple."

"If something like that was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago," Alya snorts rolling her eyes. "Nope, trust me, I know. My job would have been so much easier if Marinette had done what any other girl presented with a hot punk musician would have done, and fucked Luka's brains out."

"Gross!" Juleka exclaims burying her head into Rose's shoulder. "That is so fucking gross."

"But true," Alya says, sharing a nod with Alix and Mylene. If Nino hadn't been in the picture, and Luka not so helplessly in love with Marinette, Alya would have gone for it herself. But alas. "I want Marinette to be happy, which is why we must ensure that no matter the price, no matter what laws we break, we do _whatever_ it takes to reunite Marinette with Tim. I will stake my firstborn on this!"

Considering all the traffic laws they've disregarded, petty theft, and breaking and entering they've committed in the name of Adrienette over the years... Well, maybe she should warn her dad that he might be bailing the five of them out of an American prison in the near future.

But hey, that's just another reason to exclude Lila from the plan, her mother is a diplomat after all. There's no way she would keep the position if her daughter caused an international incident with one of America's wealthiest families.

"Marinette's helped us more than anyone over the years; it's only right we return the favor," Mylene, bless her soul, adds.

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes," Rose says passionately. "True love is always worth it!"

"Whatever it takes," Juleka echoes.

"So we're all in agreement then, operation Hot Girl Summer is a go?" Alya asks.

"Do you even know where to find this guy?" Alix snorts, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back.

Alya had been waiting for just this question. She grabs her bag, taking out a manila folder stuffed so full papers are practically dripping out.

"Well, it's funny you should ask."

* * *

Finding Tim, then Drake now Drake-Wayne, hadn't been hard per se. There is an embarrassing amount of information available on his dad, who, apparently, is a big deal. Through tracking Bruce Wayne's media coverage Alya had been able to track down Tim Drake-Wayne.

_Finding_ him wasn't the issue.

Getting in touch with him _was_.

Alya had spent hours pouring over every single scrap of contact information.

She'd sent emails and voicemails to any active line she came across. Hours were spent scouring message boards looking for someone with connections, _any_ connections that had the potential to get her into contact with Tim, and they were all, frankly speaking, wasted.

She had even tried texting a boy named Connor Kent whose name and number she had found on facebook connected to a picture Tim Drake was tagged in a year prior.

While she had yet to hear a response back from anyone, she had gotten her facebook reported, and her email blocked from both the Wayne Enterprises _and_ the Wayne Foundation websites.

So really, the only ones to blame for her having to resort to such drastic steps? The entirety of Gotham with their God damned 'we protect our own' nonsense.

Was it too much to ask for just _one_ person to throw her a line?

* * *

Their visas give them two months to spend in the city, and while that's a long time, in theory, Alya wants to get this over with as soon as possible. Sue her, but she wants to give her bestie the chance to be sickeningly in love before being forced to do long distance.

* * *

Their first attempt at operation Hot Girl Summer: cyberstalk the fuck out of this rich boy. The easiest way to do this would be to have them bump into each other on the streets. It would seem natural from Marinette and Tim's perspective. There would be no reason to suspect a random happenstance of being a setup.

Fortunately, Tim has a favorite coffee shop just a few streets down from where he works at Wayne Enterprises, _thank you Wikipedia_, that he frequents on Monday mornings.

Twitter has a steady supply of Tim sightings dating back months. There is no reason why he wouldn't be there.

Alix from her spot two streets over with Mylene had snapped a picture of Tim Drake heading up toward the café.

Really the only reason that say, a supervillain would have to attack at the ass crack of dawn right after Alya had _finally_ managed to drag Marinette to the café is just the universe raising its middle finger, and laughing at her pain.

Marinette hadn't thought twice before she had started to herd people out of the café, and down the street just before Red Robin had arrived, and Alya's phone chimed.

Juleka had sent a video of Tim turning around and Rose attempting to run after him, cutting across the street as he ducked around the corner of an alley. The footage is shaky before getting cut off by the sound of a siren and a car honking.

Well, there goes the first traffic violation.

**Juleka:** _We pretended not to speak English so they let us off with a warning._

With the café being a bust Alya decides to kick Operation Stalk up a notch. She and the girls hang around Tim's job in the hopes of cornering him when he's alone.

Mylene is concerned.

Alya is prepared.

She has pictures of Marinette dating back from when she would have met Tim all the way up to her currently. Hell, she had even managed to find the last selfie Marinette had sent him.

Sure, stalking might have _technically_ been illegal, but hell, she's not going to follow the guy home — she only needs a minute to shove the pictures into his face, and convince him that it's past time he reconnected with his childhood friend.

Marinette would have objected to this, sure. She had outgrown her own slightly stalkerish tendencies. The girl just tended to hyperfocus, and she had gotten worlds better at managing it.

But desperate times called for desperate measures — and this? This totally counted as a desperate time

* * *

They last all of three days before Marinette realizes that something is up. They're confronted by Adrien of all people, demanding to know why they're treating Marinette like she's got the plague.

Alya sees two very different choices here and naturally, she wastes no time in getting Adrien onboard operation Hot Girl Summer.

Who would have guessed that Agreste was such a romantic…or had such an extensive data bank of romantic comedies floating around his head.

He takes his role as the distraction to _heart_, dedicating himself to keeping Marinette from focusing on everyone's absence too much. He's co-captain of the S.S Timari.

To think, it only took turning Adrien into a shipper to make progress on the Adrienette front.

Well, you live and learn, there's no turning back now.

* * *

Unfortunately, Tim never seems to leave the office. He seems to live there, after two weeks of a 9-5 stakeout, the situation demands an all-nighter. Which, it turns out, is also how they end up jumping Nightwing in a back alley. God, they are _so_ going to jail.

While Alya had noticed him following them for the last couple of days, she didn't think it would matter all that much. That is, until the clock had struck just past midnight and he had stayed in the same spot for, oh yeah, hour four of his stakeout.

There is nothing in this world that Alya wouldn't do to ensure her friend's happiness, she had always known that to some degree.

Now, now she knows that apparently included assaulting superheroes.

Go big or go home.

Nightwing is a good guy, everyone says he's kind, he hadn't hesitated to follow them into the alley connecting the Wayne building to its neighbor. All Rose had to do is scream and he came running…

Right into the _Last Resort Net_.

"Okay," Alya starts. "I know this looks bad."

"No, you think?" Nightwing says, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. "Stalking isn't bad, and tying up a superhero? Well, that's just everybody's Friday night nowadays."

Alix snickers in the background, and Alya sends her a _look_.

"Like I said, it looks bad, but it's for a good cause," Alya tries.

"A good cause, huh." Nightwing pretends to think about it, scrunching up his face into the most exaggerated expression Alya has ever seen on a grown man. "Well, that just makes everything all better. We'll just forget this, I'll go home, and you'll go back to creeping."

"It's not like we've broken any—" A sharp look is enough for Juleka to amend her words. "Many, we haven't broken _many_ laws."

"Listen, I'm—"

Nightwing is cut off before he can finish his sentence, slumping forward over himself.

Behind him, Alya sees Rose holding a frying pan, her arm still extended from knocking the hero out.

"_What the fuck Rose_?" Alya whisper screams.

She's not even going to ask why exactly Rose had thought to bring a frying pan to their stakeout. Frankly, she is more concerned with the possible murder they may have just committed

"He knew too much," Rose cries, burying her face into Juleka's chest. "I panicked!"

"Holy hell, we're so fucked!" Alix says, turning in a circle, and pacing at the mouth of the alley.

Alya crouches down, holding her breath as she sticks her finger under Nightwing's nose.

Good, he's still breathing.

"No, we're not," Alya says, grabbing onto Nightwing's shoulders. "We are not fucked, because this never happened. Help me drag him to the dumpster."

"Oh my God, Alya," Juleka says.

"You can't just throw him away," Mylene practically screams.

"I'm not," Alya rolls her eyes. "He's very much still alive. We're just going to lean him against it, run back to our hotel, and never speak of this again."

Alix is the first to come over, hefting one of Nightwing's arms over her shoulder. "What happens in Gotham stays in Gotham?"

Alya nods as Juleka and Rose grab a leg each, and Mylene takes the left arm. "What happens in Gotham stays in Gotham."

It takes a lot longer than she thought it would to drag the man over toward the dumpster. He's a hell of a lot heavier than he looks. Alya winces at the sound his head makes when they drop him back onto the ground.

Nightwing is known for his personality, his sense of humor, and general good nature. Still, what are the chances of that being enough to save them from an arrest?

Slim, she thinks, glancing over at him. The chances are _slim_.

* * *

With stalking now off the table due to the threat of Nightwing hauling their collective asses off to jail, Alya drafts Kim and Max into what will forever be known as the _stupidest-fucking-thing-Alya has-ever-done-and-will-ever-do_.

To be honest, she's not exactly sure how she managed to get her friends on board with breaking into Wayne Enterprises. She blames the shock of almost offing a superhero. Nonetheless, they're down, and Alya isn't going to question it.

* * *

Max's job is simple — hack into the security feed, loop it back over itself so no one sees them, and let them know if someone is coming. It should probably be harder than it is for him to hack the system, but well, thirty minutes after he set out to try, they're in.

* * *

Kim is far too excited to be involved in a potential kidnapping.

* * *

Somehow Dick Grayson ends up knocked out by the same frying pan Rose used on Nightwing… She's watched far too much Tangled. Alya will never again be able to look at the girl the same way. Not after watching her take down two grown men with a piece of crockery.

They tie him up, and drag him to the closest supply closet. For good measure, they swipe his phone.

* * *

Security catches on halfway up to the top floor. Kim's time has come. He and Alix take off bowling into the guards, making a break for the emergency exit.

* * *

Finally, they make it to the top floor which is mostly abandoned save for the conference room that Alya can see Tim in through the glass wall. Unfortunately, there just so happens to be a man hanging back in the hallway.

Jason Todd spots them and comes over to investigate.

They've really come too far to just back out now. Nope, not going to happen. Alya sees Rose raise her frying pan, and silently shakes her head.

Instead, she motions for Mylene.

Sweet, couldn't-hurt-a-fly Mylene, to deal with it. There is no way Alya could have anticipated Mylene kneeing the poor guy in the crotch the second she's within reaching distance.

"I'm so sorry. I panicked!"

It's messy and the commotion causes both Tim and the man Alya's come to learn is Bruce Freaking Wayne to come out of the room, and _yup_, goodbye future.

Alya knows that this doesn't just look bad, but is genuinely _awful_. They've broken so many laws in the last three hours that it's not even funny anymore.

* * *

Bruce Wayne takes in the scene before him, Jason on the ground, the hallway looking like a complete war zone, and smack dab in the middle of it all, four teen girls who don't look _nearly_ as cowed as they should be, and has to fight back the sigh that wants to escape his throat.

"Does anyone want to explain what exactly is going on here," he bites out.

Briefly, he registers a girl stepping up, she reaches into her bag, pulling out a folder.

"Mr. Wayne," she takes a deep breath, squaring her shoulders, and thrusting the folder out toward him. "Three years ago, Tim Drake stopped talking to Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and well, we've been trying to reconnect them."

Bruce can just feel the headache coming on as he takes the folder. He doesn't see the girl from the pictures present. Granted with the mess these kids have caused it's just as likely she's reeking hell somewhere nearby. "And where exactly is Ms. Marinette."

"She's back with our class. We're here on vacation for the summer, which is why it's really important that you listen, okay?" She turns her attention away from him, facing Tim fully. "I know it's been a while, and I know you have your own life, you grew up, but I think we both know you guys were more than just friends. She still misses you."

"And the reason you decided breaking into one of the most secure buildings in the city was a good idea?" Tim asks incredulously.

"I tried to get in touch with you. Marinette tried too! But fucking Connor Kent snitched, and got my facebook flagged. No one ever answered my voicemails. Hell, if it hadn't been for fucking Kiteman, you would have met in a coffee shop weeks ago!"

"Fucking Kiteman," They say in unison, sharing a dark look.

Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to give you all exactly three minutes to own up to any crimes you've committed so far without fear of punishment."

"I killed Nightwing."

"You didn't kill him! You just knocked him out."

"We did try and throw him away though."

"No Mylene, we didn't, we left him in the alley _next_ to the dumpster. Not in it."

"We stalked you on twitter."

"And then in person."

"You need to go home more."

"Kim and Alix probably trashed the lobby."

"Max hacked your security."

"I stole your son's phone."

"Oh shit, your son!"

"I'm sorry!"

"He's tied up in a supply closet."

"Rose knocked him out."

* * *

The first thing they do is let Dick out of the closet where, sure enough, he's still duct-taped to a chair.

He shoots Rose a dark look, skirting around her as he rubs the circulation back into his arms.

Kim and Alix are waiting with security. Both let out loud whoops when they spot Tim.

"Fuck yes! Operation Hot Girl Summer is a success!"

"Operation Hot Girl Summer?" Jason raises an eyebrow, sharing a look with Dick.

"Don't ask," Juleka says.

* * *

Marinette didn't think she would see Tim, well ever again. Beside her Adrien is squealing, flapping his hands back and forth like a hyperactive penguin.

"Alya, _what did you do_," she asks, taking a step forward toward where a suspiciously large amount of her friends are standing with a group of men.

"Girl, the better question is what _didn't_ I do."


End file.
